engleski

Application of an Integrated Algorithm in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Peripheral Artery Disease in Patients with Diabetes

Diabetes and its complications causes up to 9% of total mortality worldwide. Peripheral arterial disease is, in addition to cardiovascular diseases, the most common complication of diabetes with a prevalence that increases with age and the duration of diabetes. The specificity of peripheral artery disease in diabetics is the diffuse involvement of the arterial system, especially the popliteal arteries. Consequently, diabetes is still the main cause of small and large limb amputations, which, in addition to a reduction in the quality of life, significantly affects the survival of patients. Since the developed of atherosclerotic disease involves a number of complications from the professional domain of various subspecialties, such as diabetic foot, it is necessary to organize multidisciplinary teams for the diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. For this purpose, the General Hospital “Dr. Josip Benčević” in Slavonski Brod organized a multidisciplinary team with the goal of early recognition of peripheral artery disease and application of timely treatment. Experience from everyday clinical practice indicates that proper functioning of the team requires an accurate diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm to avoid long waiting lists for imaging, which includes Color Doppler and multislice computed tomography. The diagnostic algorithm was based on the ankle-brachial index, and its value and clinical picture guided and determined the degree of urgency and the type of image processing. By integrating the algorithm into the online database registry, we were able to more easily monitor the incidence rate, treatment success, and dependence on the entered variables. We hope that this approach will result in earlier detection of symptomatic disease and thus a significant reduction in lower limb amputations and, ultimately, mortality.

algorithm ; multidisciplinary team ; peripheral arterial disease ; register ; diabetes

nije evidentirano